Monday, October 21, 2013

TORTURE by Doctors

TORTUREBYDOCTORS Medical torture describes the involvement and sometimes
active participation of medical professionals in acts of torture, either
to judge what victims can endure, to apply treatments which will enhance
torture, or as torturers in their own right. Medical torture may be called medical
interrogation if it involves the use of their expert medical knowledge to
facilitate interrogation or corporal punishment, in the conduct of
torturous human experimentation or in providing
professional medical sanction and approval for the torture of prisoners.
Medical torture also covers torturous scientific (or pseudo-scientific)
experimentation upon unwilling human subjects.

Legal prosecution of cruel
& inhuman STFpolice personnel
- An appeal to H.E. HONOURABLE GOVERNOR OF KARNATAKA
During “catch
forest brigand veerappan operation” , Special Task Force
police personnel , illegally arrested , detained , tortured & murdered innocent tribal people of both tamil
nadu & Karnataka states. NHRC has clearly noted the crimes of STF personnel & ordered
both Karnataka & tamil nadu
governments to pay compensation to victims of police atrocities. However still some of these
victims are not yet paid compensation by
these governments , why ? also , the government instead of legally prosecuting guilty police
officers on murder charges , has given
awards & promotion to guilty inhuman police officers. Is the government sending a message
that 3rd degree torture & murders in
lock-up / fake encounters is acceptable & legal ? is it
equitable justice ? is there one set of law for police & another for common
people ? Hereby , we do
once again request your kindself , to dismiss guilty police officials from police service , to
withhold their pension benefits , to legally prosecute them on charges of
murders of innocent tribal people &
on charges of attempt to murder innocent tribal people by 3rd degree torture methods.
Hereby , we also request you to make
public JUSTICE A.J. SADA SHIVA COMMISSION’s findings about atrocities by STF personnel. To order the
prison authorities to subject the four convicts, accomplices of Veerappan to
Narco analysis & Bran mapping tests in a fair manner with unbiased
questionnaire.
So that truth will come out about Ex-Minister Nagappa's Murder case, Amount of Ransoms paid during all kidnap
episodes including Movie star Raj Kumar's kidnap episode. Truth will come out
about the Minister M.L.As. M.Ps. Police & Forest Officials who have stacked
away riches by helping him. Truth will come about Granite quarry owners
who helped him. Truth will come out about traders, merchants who traded in
goods , sandal wood , Ivory supplied by forest brigand Veerappan.
To order the Govt of Karnataka , to make public the Justice A J Sadashiva's commission's final report &
complete proceedings . Then the truth will come out, how the STF personnel, police
tortured tribal people at a place called WORK SHOP IN M M HILLS how they gang raped tribal women
repeatedly for days together, how they burnt their breasts, how they pushed
sticks smeared with chilli sambar powder into their anus. How the police tied men
folk upside down from the ceiling . How many died, unable to bear the shame
& torture ? Are not these brutal inhuman STF police personnel fit to be hanged till
death, along with four accomplices of Veerappan ?
To order the National Human Rights Commission to make public the findings of
its independent enquiry conducted about the police torture on tribal people.
Violations of human rights of tribal people in the forest brigand veerappan's
Territory i.e. M M Hills.Jai Hind. Vande
Mataram.Your’s Sincerely,Nagaraja.M.R.Editorial : FAKE ENCOUNTERS , LOCK-UP DEATHS & 3RD DEGREE
TORTURE BY POLICE IN INDIA Recently, it has
been reported in the media , how in gujarath state high ranking police officials took SUPARI to
murder & committed the murders by
giving it the name of encounter. Nowadays , it has become common place that police take law into their
own hands , settle scores , conducts
their own courts of justice like compromise panchayaths at police stations. All
these acts of police are illegal , the police must be first thought the lessons
of law before enforcing it. The
murderers , criminals in police uniform must be punished at the earliest. At the outset ,
HRW salutes the few honest police personnel who are silently doing their duties inspite of
pressures , harassment by political
bosses & corrupt superiors , inspite of frequent transfers , promotion holdups , etc. overcoming the lure
of bribe ,those few are silently doing
their duties without any publicity or fanfare. we salute them & pay our respects to them and
hereby appeal to those few honest to
catch their corrupt colleagues. The police are
trained , to crack open the cases of crimes by just holding onto a thread of clue. Based on that
clue they investigate like
"Sherlock holmes" and apprehend the real criminals. nowadays , when police are under various pressures ,
stresses – they are frequently using 3rd
degree torture methods on innocents. Mainly there
are 3 reasons for this : 1) when the
investigating officer (I.O) lacks the brains of Sherlock holmes , to cover-up his own inefficiency he
uses 3rd degree torture on innocents. 2) When the I.O is
biased towards rich , powerful crooks , to frame innocents & to extract false confessions
from them , 3rd degree torture is used
on innocents. 3) When the I.O is
properly doing the investigations , but the higher- ups need very quick results
– under work stress I.O uses 3rd degree torture
on innocents. Nowhere in
statuette books , police are legally authorized to punish let alone torture the detainees / arrested /
accussed / suspects. Only the judiciary
has the right to punish the guilty not the police. Even the judiciary doesn't have the right to punish
the accussed /
suspects , then how come police are using 3rd degree torture unabetted. Even
during encounters , police only have the legal right , authority to immobilize
the opponents so as to arrest them but not to kill them. There is a
reasoning among some sections of society & police that use of 3RD DEGREE TORTURE by police is a detterent
of crimes. It is false & biased.
Take for instance there are numerous scams involving 100's of crores of public money – like stock scam ,
fodder scam , etc involving rich
businessmen , VVIP crooks. Why don't police use 3rd degree torture against such rich crooks and
recover crores of public
money where as the police use 3rd degree torture against a pick- pocketer to recover hundred rupees stolen ?
double standards by police. In media we have
seen numerous cases of corrupt police officials in league with criminals. For the sake of bribe ,
such police officials bury cases ,
destroy evidences , go slow , frame innocents , murder innocents in the name of encounter , etc. why
don't police use 3rd degree torture
against their corrupt colleagues who are aiding criminals , anti nationals ? double standards
by police. All the bravery of police is
shown before poor , innocents , tribals , dalits , before them police give the
pose of heroes. Whereas ,
before rich , VVIP crooks , they are zeroes. They are simply like scarecrows before rich crooks. Torture in any
form by anybody is inhuman & illegal. For the purpose of investigations
police have scientific investigative tools like polygraph, brain mapping , lie detector , etc.
these scientific tools must be used against rich crooks & petty criminals
without bias.
Hereby we urge the GOI & all state governments : 1) to book cases
of murder against police personnel who use 3rd degree torture on detainees and kill
detainees in the name of encounter killings.
2) To dismiss such
inhuman , cruel personnel from police service and to forfeit all monetary benefits due to them
like gratuity , pension , etc. 3) To pay such
forfeited amount together with matching government contribution as compensation to family of the
victim's of 3rd degree torture &
encounter killings. 4) To review , all
cases where false confessions were extracted from innocents by 3rd degree torture. 5) To make liable
the executive magistrate of the area , in whose jurisdiction torture is perpetrated by police
on innocents. 6) To make it
incumbent on all judicial magistrates ,to provide a torture free climate to all parties ,
witnesses in cases before his court. 7) To make public
the amount & source of ransom money paid to forest brigand veerappan to secure the release of
matinee idol mr. raj kumar. 8) To make public
justice A.J.Sadashiva's report on "torture of tribals , human rights
violations by Karnataka police in M.M.HILLS , KARNATAKA". 9) To make it
mandatory for police to use scientific tools of investigations like brain
mapping , polygraph , etc without bias against
suspects rich or poor. 10) To include
human rights education in preliminary & refresher training of police personnel. 11) To recruit
persons on merit to police force who have aptitude & knack for investigations. 12) To insulate
police from interference from politicians & superiors. 13) To make police
force answerable to a neutral apex body instead of political bosses. Such body must be empowered
to deal with all service matters of
police. 14) The political
bosses & the society must treat police in a humane manner and must know that they too have
practical limitations. Then on a
reciprocal basis , police will also treat others humanely. 15) The police
must be relieved fully from the sentry duties of biggies & must be put on detective ,
investigative works.

Violence and the ethical responsibility of the medical profession

Amar Jesani

Prof. Upendra Baxi, a well known expert on law and
a former vice chancellor of Delhi and South Gujarat universities, in his
comments on Women’s Studies in the ICSSR Newsletter seven years back, made some
incisive and disturbing comments on the coverage of violence in social science
discourses in India. “Mainstream social sciences in India have altogether
ignored the fact that India is a very violent society. There do not exist even
pre- theoretical discourses on violence in India. Compared with the practice of
violence in India, there is a total denial of discourse on violence.”1

Health care professionals have fared even worse
than social scientists.

The concern for violence is conspicuous by its
virtual absence in medical discourses. The special medical needs and
rehabilitation of victims and survivors of violence are hardly ever discussed
by doctors. Is this because health care workers do not come in contact with the
victims and survivors of violence? The answer is a categoricalno.
Violence invariably inflicts physical or psychological trauma and in any
violence, the victims and survivors come in contact with health care workers,
the last and extreme contact being established during autopsies on victims of
violence. The apathy of medical personnel is all the more disturbing simply
because of the many professions in our country, medicine has the greatest claim
to nobility, compassion, humanity, rationality and scientific attitudes.

Unlike some extremely backward countries, we have
nearly a million (9,27,624 in 1991) formally trained doctors, 42% of whom are
trained in modern medicine - a ratio of one doctor for less than a thousand
persons in the country as whole and one doctor for less than five hundred in
the urban areas. An estimated 85% of all trained doctors work in the private
sector3. Yet, the conscious response of the profession to one of the
bigger epidemics of violence in recent times in our country has been grossly
inadequate. We have either shown plain indifference or clumsy and ad hoc crisis
management when faced with violence. This does not auger well for a profession
claiming to have scientific basis for its practice. The implied failure in
discharging social responsibility raises ethical questions for the profession
at large in the country.

Violence and the medical
profession
The science of medicine incorporates sociological and epidemiological
understanding. Medicine, and for that matter any science, not geared to real
social andepidemiological issues loses its humanitarian content. The violence
described and documented by voluntary groups is not that by common criminals.
The violence covered here includes the deprivation of human and democratic
rights, is associated with social and political mobilisation, is often
inflicted on helpless, oppressed, unarmed or innocent persons and has notable
ideological underpinnings. There are strong, extreme and sometimes genuine
differences within the social groups on the attitude society should take on the
subject. One finds strong defenders (and opponents) of third degree methods, an
euphesism for torture, almost routinely employed by the police. Similar
divergence prevails in debates on caste, communal, gender and other forms of
violence.

One’s social position and ideological orientation,
rather than the fact of the violence and the plight of victims and survivors,
seem to determine the stand taken on violence. Of course there is also a big
segment that has either become emotionally numb due from excessive exposure to
violence or is indifferent as at present it is not directly affected.

Such trends prevail in the medical profession as
well. To what extent is the attitude of doctors to violence shaped by their
social positions and ideological orientation? There has been very little
research on doctors’ attitudes on violence and the extent to which individual
biases get reflected in medical practice. Some indication on what is happening
at the ground level within the profession is available from the recent reports
of various local, national and international groups. These reports were
prepared for specific purposes and their findings on the acts of commission and
omission cannot and should not be generalised. Nevertheless, they do serve as
pointers. The few examples given below on postmortems and torture and rape are
purposefully selected by me in order to illustrate issues. I understand that
there is always the other side to every story.

(a) Autopsy: The way autopsies are conducted,
findings recorded and access to reports denied has been a bone of contention
for long. There have been reports in the press about the pressure exerted on
doctors by the police to give findings favorable to them. The death of Dayal
Singh in police custody made the Resident Doctors’ Association of All India
Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) protest against such pressure. This is
referred to in Amnesty International’s (AI) report titled Torture, Rape and
Deaths in Police Custody4. The autopsy reports on two nuns murdered
in a Bombay suburb and the role of doctors in unscientific inter F retation of
its findings is also fresh in many minds5. On study of autopsy
reports on victims dying in police custody and on so- called deaths during
‘encounters’ in the past few years, I found several disturbing issues which
have grave implications on the unethical behavior of doctors conducting
autopsies:

(1) Autopsies are generally conducted by police
surgeons in police hospitals to which lay people and other doctors have no
access. An independent medical audit of work being done there is unheard of.
This situation is neither conducive to good science nor to ethics.

(2) A study of autopsy reports (no such study is
available, hence the need for it) of victims of violence would probably show
incomplete and unscientific documentation. The Supreme Court had to order, in
1989, that all postmortem examinations held at AIIMS be standardised. On making
inquiries I learn that this Court order has remained inadequately implemented.

There is a crying need to adopt (with suitable
modifications) the United Nations’ manual on the effective prevention and investigation
of extralegal, arbitrary and summary executions.! Such routine, standardised
and scientific investigation by the medical profession would go a long way in
checking arbitrary killings and in upholding medical impartiality and
neutrality’

(3) There is also need to make the whole process
more accessible to other doctors and the public. The profession could allow a
doctor appointed by the relatives of the deceased to remain present at autopsy.
They should make the official report available to the family doctor and the
patient’s relatives. This is an issue on which the profession can easily assert
its authority.

(b) Torture and rape: There have been numerous
official denials that the so- called third degree methods of interrogation or
torture are practiced by our police and security personnel. The evidence
accumulated so far does not support such a claim. Some of the retired police
officers, reared in the old school of correct policing, have publicly
criticised the ‘new methods of policing’ which condone the use of torture,
illegal detention and tampering with records and in worst cases even condone
execution of hard core criminals by police officers7.

AI’s report (1992) cites 13 cases of custody deaths
due to torture in the period 1985- 89 in Maharashtra. A Bombay newspaper
reported a study by the prestigious Karve Institute of Social Work, Pune giving
the toll of custody deaths in Maharashtra in 1980- 89 as 1558. On
inquiry I find that of these 155 deaths, 102 had taken place in the five year
period 1985- 89 for which AI had reported only 13. On analysing the causes of
the 155 custody deaths, I find that only 9.7% (15) were admitted as due to
police action, 44.5% (69) were attributed to suicide or acts of the accused, 7%
(11) to acts of the public, 22.6% (35) to disease and illness. 13.6% (21) were
termed natural deaths and in 2.6% (4) the cause was not known or record not
available. I was astonished to learn some of specific causes listed: alcohol
consumption (9 cases), hanging (45), jumped in well (3), jumped under the train
(2), jumped under the awtorickshaw (3), jumped under the bus (l), fell from the
cot (l), skin disease (l), giddiness (l), unconsciousness (1) and so on. Given
the norm that every death in custody ought to be investigated- and proper
autopsy done, such causes are not only incomprehensible but also lead to
suspicion about a larger proportion of deaths due to torture.

In an investigation of death in police custody in
Bombay, I, along with two journalists and a lawyer, found that the young victim
accused of petty theft was in the course of interrogation brought to the
hospital in a serious condition with, as per hospital records, inflicted
injuries on his wrists and thighs typical of torture, bloody vomiting, pain in
the region around kidney etc. He was given some treatment and asked to go back
to his cell by the doctor. It was also found that the doctor had taken case
history and examined’his patient in the presence of the police officer who had
accompanied the victim.

The doctor did not consider the presence of the
police as violating the doctor- patient relationship. He insisted that he did
not suspect torture as the victim never reported it to him. The victim died in
his cell.

Similar findings were made by us in an
investigation of a victim of gang rape wherein, inspite of the visible signs of
injuries around the vagina, which could make any medical person suspect rape,
the male doctor turned away the patient after treating her injuries simply
because the woman could not tell him that she was raped’. The woman had
reported rape to the nurse on duty but could not communicate this to the male
doctor.

In another case of custodial gang rape and torture
of a tribal woman by police in Gujarat, the commission of inquiry constituted
by the Supreme Court found that two doctors at the government hospital were
guilty of shielding the policemen and issuing a false certificate10

These examples only represent the tip of the
iceberg. Doctors who come in contact with survivors and victims of violence are
not always conscious accomplices in ignoring or covering up the cases. I have
been given the following reasons for non- reporting and conspicuous silence by
medical doctors on torture and rape:

(1) A section of doctors involved are plainly
ignorant about this aspect of medical work. If it is true that it never occurs
to a doctor that a policeman should not be allowed to remain present during the
doctor- patient interaction, or that certain signs and symptoms should make
him/ her suspicious of possible torture, it shows crass ignorance in the
profession and a grave lacuna in their training.

(2) Another section is indifferent to the plight of
sufferer due to their own social biases against the victims and survivors. Such
indifference is also produced by social pressure to conform to the dominant
belief. In cases of torture inflicted on persons labeled as terrorists, I have
found doctors faithfully treating the injuries of the victims but showing great
reluctance in mentioning torture due to the fear of being seen as opposed to
the state’s efforts at fighting terrorism and separatism.

(3) A third section simply believes that by being
in the employment of the government, the police department or the prison, they
are bound by the orders of their superiors and feel that the code of their
service does not allow them to ‘blow the whistle’.

The profession has failed to take the unequivocal
position that when a doctor has to choose between an administrative order and
professional ethics, the latter must prevail. The profession has also failed to
protest when doctors are transferred as punishment for cri ticising gimmicky
and unscientific measures taken by the authorities during epidemics, or when
security forces harass and raid hospitals, interfering with the treatment of
patients as in Kashmir11. Such lack of collective assertion of
professional independence and neutrality on crucial issues has left individual
doctors defenseless, cynical and by default subservient to the authorities.

(4) Another reason for doctors’ apathy to these
issues is their unwillingness to ‘get involved’. Many remark, “We are doctors.
We treat illness. We are not interested in torture or rape.” This is both
inadequate science and poor ethics.

Treatment, rehabilitation and
documentation
Recognition of the fact that the reported instances of torture represent only a
tip of the iceberg emphasises the need to document the problem in a systematic
manner. There is a need to put together experiences in treatment and
rehabilitation of such victims, create a clearing house for such information to
be disseminated among interested professionals, and thus systematise corrective
medical intervention.

This would also provide precious information on the
extent of problem encountered, the individuals and agencies (state, terrorists,
armed groups, gangs) involved in torture, type of people affected, type of
torture methods used and so on. This information in turn would sensitise the
profession and make it easier for medical associations and groups to
successfully campaign for rooting out conscious or unconscious complicity of
doctors in torture or its cover up. Such information will also sensitise other
professionals in the media, law, social work etc. to play active and meaningful
roles in creating public awareness, in punishing the guilty and in
rehabilitating survivors.

Code of medical ethics and
torture
The code laid down by the Medical Council of India is a good but greatly
neglected document. Despite debates about commercialisation and sensational
revelations in the press on various allegedly unethical practices by doctors,
very little has been done by the medical associations to popularise and enforce
this code.

Although the principles enunciated in the code are
universal and exhort doctors to refrain from participating or colluding in
anything that harms the individual, there is a need to make them specific and
directive, particularly in relation to the victims and survivors of violence.
This could be easily done by incorporation of the international declaration on
the subject in our code.